Ellis Drake

Ellis Drake ran her own theatre company as well as being an actress, playwright and comedienne. The first mention of Ellis Drake is in a review of her play 'Wullie' which ran throughout the war to great success. After the war, she presented another successful play called 'Oh Mother' in 1921. Then another, 'Her Husband' in 1923 although the title of this was shortly changed to 'My Husband' to prevent audiences believing Drake was presenting her actual husband on stage. Miss Drake disapears from view for a few years before a 1928 mention in the Kirkintilloch Herald notes that along with her partner Jack Fraser' she has just returned from a successful tour in South Africa. Over the next twenty years the duo are billed variously as a singing duo and comedy duo. In 1950 they are billed as 'The Famous BBC Comedy Couple from "McFlannels"' (McFlannels was a BBC Scottish Radio show from the 1939 -1953 about a Glasgow working class Scottish family and is presented in Glasgow dialect), although they were not listed as regular characters. In 1937 Ellis Drake appeared in what seems to have been her only movie, 'Said O'Reilly To McNab' alongside Will Fyffe (alongside whom she had appeared on numerous occasions over the years). The last mention of Drake is in the Stage on Thursday 25th March 1954, when she was elected to the Scottish Sub Committee of the VAF the Variety Artists Federation. No death date or personal biographical details have been found and it may be that Ellis Drake was a stage name.